I've been using this blog to post some travelogue emails I wrote to friends and families when I was a young, carefree global vagrant. Blogs had barely entered my vocabulary at this point, so I recklessly invaded the inboxes of my nearest and dearest. This particular missive covers the first part of my trip to New Zealand, which lasted a couple of months from late 2003 to January 2004 – a stunning country to which several of my friends are currently migrating, and who could blame them?
If you've seen one of these travelogues before you'll know that I had an aversion to capital letters in those days, possibly a reaction to years of institutionalised essay writing through my formative years. It's a good job I'm now working at a university and have regained grammatically correct habits.
In this travelogue you will encounter the premiere of the last part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a little bit of train travel, a Rugby World Cup final, mild exasperation at hostel life and a hint of Crowded House appreciation. There's more to come of the latter in the next posting, which I'll post in a few minutes time.